Contractor: Losing immunity would hurt Iraq mission
(CNN) — An American contractor said Thursday that the U.S. mission in Iraq will be undermined if the Iraqi government succeeds in revoking blanket legal immunity for American security contractors.
Carter Andress reacted to a Wednesday government report that said the removal of legal immunity for American private security contractors could set off an exodus from war-ravaged Iraq and impose significant limitations on American reconstruction efforts.
The scenario is outlined in the quarterly report issued to Congress by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
Andress, whose firm builds bases for the Iraqi army and police and supplies those places with water, food, fuel and maintenance services, said that about 40 percent of his staff is involved in security.
We would undermine the U.S. mission here because they are so reliant on contractors, said Andress, co-founder of the American-Iraqi Solutions Group. For better or for worse, that’s reality.
Even though 90 percent of his employees are Iraqis, he fears that new laws could force him to shut down.
But the exodus comment in the report also prompted skepticism from a scholar who studies the subject. Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution scholar who is an authority on private security firms, said, I don’t think we should worry about a market collapse, so to speak. There’s simply too much money to be made.
The Iraqi government has criticized the blanket immunity because of the actions of security contractors, such as the September shootings in Baghdad of Iraqi citizens that involved Blackwater contractors. Seventeen people died in that incident.
From a relief and reconstruction perspective, one of the most critical issues under discussion is contractor immunity, the inspector general’s report says.
